Local Canadian Cuisine

Toronto is a fabulous city for food lovers! It's fun finding restaurants that use local ingredients and change their menus with the seasons. Last night Boyd took me to the Keriwa Cafe, whose chef focuses on Aboriginal (Canadian for American Indian/Native American)-inspired cuisine.

The flavors were AMAZING! 

Boyd got the pork loin. It was smoked and really tender. The sauce had beets and hazelnuts; the nuts adding a perfect crunch and a complementary, earthy flavor. 

I got the pan-fried rainbow trout with a perfectly creamy chanterelle mushroom sauce. It also had chard, yellow squash, and fennel bulbs, which had a nice citrus undertone. The flavors were perfectly balanced between salty, creamy, lemony - with such rich fish and vegetable flavors. Wow.

I finished the meal with a glass of ice wine from the Niagara region. It's a sweet desert wine made with grapes that are left to freeze on the vine. I read an article about the process in the New York times several years ago and I've been interested to try it ever since. A bit sweet, even for my taste, but a full grape flavor.

Another cool part of the evening? We got there and home again by public transportation! The buses come every 8-10 minutes and they were still running regularly at 10pm when we came home. So awesome.